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Count Karl Ferdinand von Buol (German: Karl Ferdinand Graf von
Buol-Schauenstein) (17 May 1797, Vienna â€“ 28 October 1865) was an Austrian diplomatist and
statesman, who served as Foreign Minister of Austria from 1852 to
1859.

Karl Ferdinand Graf von Buol-Schauenstein

Buol joined the Austrian foreign service and served successively
as Austrian minister to Baden and Wygoda (1828â€“1838), WÃ¼rttemberg
(1838â€“1844), Piedmont
(1844â€“1848), Russia
(1848â€“1850), the ministerial conference in Dresden (1850â€“1851), and United Kingdom)
(1851â€“1852). He became an increasingly close associate of the
foreign minister, Prince
Schwarzenberg, and when Schwarzenberg died in April 1852, Buol
succeeded him as foreign minister, although not as prime minister,
as the young Emperor Franz Joseph himself now took
a more direct role in directing cabinet affairs than he had
previously.

As foreign minister, Buol soon had to deal with the Near Eastern
crisis which had erupted by early 1854 into the Crimean War, as France
and Britain declared war on Russia in an effort to support the Ottoman Empire.
In this crisis, Austria's position was a tenuous one. Russia's 1849
intervention in Hungary, and its subsequent intervention on behalf
of Austria against Prussia at OlmÃ¼tz in 1850, put the Austrians
substantially in the debt of the Tsar. Furthermore, the
geographical positions involved meant that in any war with Russia,
Austria, even if allied with France and Britain, would bear the
brunt of the fighting. On the other hand, permanent Russian control
of the Danubian Principalities (the
later Romania) would greatly
endanger Austria's strategic position, and the Austrians were more
generally opposed to any expansion of Russian influence in the
Balkans. Thus, Buol attempted to pursue a middle course, trying to
mediate between the belligerent parties.

Soon, however, this did not prove enough, and Buol, who was
noted in Austria as an Anglophile, soon cast his lot more clearly
with the western powers. An ultimatum was sent to Russia to demand
that it evacuate the Principalities. The Russians agreed, and
Austria occupied the Principalities for the remainder of the war.
This perceived betrayal by the Austrians insured the Tsar's undying
enmity, but proved not enough to satisfy the western powers. As the
conflict dragged on into 1855, Buol sent another ultimatum to
Russia, this time demanding that it accede to the French and
British terms, or face a war with Austria. This time the Russians,
now under a new Emperor, acceded, and
preliminary peace accords were signed at Vienna later that year.

Buol's policy in the Crimean War had managed to keep Austria out
of the war, but had left it badly isolated. Russia, Austria's only
reliable ally, had been completely alienated, while the French and
British had not been impressed by Austria's failure to come into
the war on their side, and continued to oppose Austrian influence
in Italy. The French, eager to form an entente with the
Russians in the wake of the war, also took it upon themselves to
oppose Austrian projects in the Balkans. The Prussians, as always,
demanded a high price in terms of Austrian acquiescence to Prussian
domination of northern Germany, in exchange for any support for
their German neighbors.

The consequences of this were to make themselves clear in 1859.
Now Camillo di Cavour, the Prime Minister of
Piedmont, anxious to goad the Austrians into a war in which he knew
he would have French support, engaged in a series of provocations
against the Austrian position in Italy. Although Buol and the
Austrians initially seemed unperturbed, to the extent that Cavour
and his ally, Napoleon III, feared they would
not be able to have their war, Buol soon gave them what they wanted
by a clumsy ultimatum demanding Piedmontese demobilization. The war
which followed would prove disastrous for the Austrian position in
Italy, but Buol himself was already dismissed in May 1859, for the
missteps which had brought about the war.